I am almost...ALMOST...to the point of beating my head against the wall. For ESS, I am setting up a fairly customized Homepage Framework (Area Group page with 6 Area pages). I have a LOT of ESS related external URLs for various forms, policies, etc. that I want to link as services. Soooo I have defined each one as a service with the setting "Direct URL launched in a separate window" and assigned my custom resource to this. The resource is simply defined with a key name and the URL to the external link. I would think that in runtime, a link would appear on the Area page showing the text as define by the service I configured and when clicked by a user, it would launch an external browser window directed to the URL as I defined in the resource. But this is NOT happening. In fact, nothing happens at all. The sparce documentation seems to suggest that this is possible but I can not figure this out. Is this actually possible or am I missing something?!?! I wouldn't think I need to define a PCD page/URL iView combo for each and every form and link them that way (yes, I did that just to show that at least that works but again, that would be insane for 50+ HR forms/links that change often). Any advice greatly appreciated!

-assign your SERVICE setting as "Direct URL launched in a separate window"

-for the RESOURCE attached to the service, I put the URL either in:

(1) the Directory Path

(2) Object Name (no idea why this actually worked!)

(3) URL of Resource Object field...makes the most sense

-the KEY was this...in the WINDOW NAME field put "_blank" which is of course good ol' web coding meaning "launch in a new window". haha I just assumed this would be done for me by the setting I made in the SERVICE itself thus allowing me to use a resource in other ways. But that's what I get for assuming...haha.

Did you use New ESS Business Package(Web Dynpro based) in different languages? We see texts related to ESS/MSS Framework Page in English even if we are accessing the portal(ESS/MSS ) in other languages.

If so what did you guys do to solve this issue.. if you faced it? Please reply..

Your answer helped a lot. I created the resource as you mentioned and the service also and assigned the resource to the service. Its getting displayed in the portal but when I click that, a new window is coming up but its adding some extra text like this after my URL.

The Window parameter set to "_blank" will indeed open a NEW browser window. That is just a typical html "target" parameter....like "parent", "self", etc. Leave the parameter empty to simply have it open in the content area of the portal.

As for the "extra" info attached to your URL, do NOT worry over that. It is ok. The portal does that by default with info that really only means things to itself. The URL you assign will just ignore the extra URL query string parameters it gets sent.

Also make sure your iView (portal side) parameter is not marked for either "open in new window" or.....drat....there is another one slightly above that one that is a drop-down....you want it to say "load in content area" or something like that...but not "open in new window".....not sure why there are two parameters for that now......actually jsut found them the other day.....new ones I guess with recent service packs. Good luck!

This thread is marked as answered but I am also getting the problem of all the parameters being passed in the URL and can't see a solution for it. Did anyone figure out how to call "http://www.google.com/" without all the extra parameters?

Does the Service need an entry in "URL in PCD page"?

Also if I don't put "_blank" in the Resource then the link does not appear in the Homepage Framework.

I do agree. The question with extra params is not answered. I mean ignoring them is not the proper way from my point of view. I tried a lot of combinations, putting values into fields within homepage framework and also in conjunction with PCD properties but without positive result. So would be great if someone can post a helpful info on these ugly params.

I too faced this kind issue with external urls but found a way out and could make the system work,

In the LPD_cust for Application type instead of using URL use "Portal Page" and in Path to page: instead of giving PCD path, give the url of external site like http://www.google.com. This will fix the issue.